Over 65 arboviruses have been reported from countries in the Australasian zoogeographic region, but only a few have been implicated in human disease. These include the flaviviruses Murray Valley encephalitis (MVE), Kunjin (KUN), Kokobera (KOK), and dengue, particularly types 1 and 2; the alphaviruses Ross River (RR), Barmah Forest (BF), and Sindbis (SIN); and the bunyaviruses, Gan Gan and Trubanaman. In this paper recent epidemiological and clinical results pertaining to these viruses are reviewed, with major emphasis on MVE and RR viruses. The extensive early studies of Australian arboviruses have been reviewed by Doherty [49, 50], and their ecology and vectors more recently by Kay and Standfast [87]. In addition, the biology of MVE and KUN [113] and RR [87, 114] viruses have been the subjects of more detailed reviews. The Australasian zoogeographic region is defined as countries east of the Wallace and Weber lines, two hypothetical lines in the Indo-Australian archipelago where the fauna of the Australasian and Oriental regions meet. Seroepidemiological studies of human arboviral infections have suggested that the Japanese encephalitis flavivirus and the chikungunya alphavirus occur only in the Oriental region, whereas the related MVE and RR viruses, respectively, are restricted to the Australasian region [85, 148]. Serological results from Wallacea, the zone between the Wallace and Weber lines, are not so clear-cut [85]. This review is therefore restricted to countries east of Wallacea, specifically New Guinea and Australia.

Dengue transmission in Australia is currently restricted to Queensland, where the vector mosquito Aedes aegypti is established. Locally acquired infections have been reported only from urban areas in the north‐east of the state, where the vector is most abundant. Considerable attention has been drawn to the potential impact of climate change on dengue distribution within Australia, with projections for substantial rises in incidence and distribution associated with increasing temperatures. However, historical data show that much of Australia has previously sustained both the vector mosquito and dengue viruses. Although current vector distribution is restricted to Queensland, the area inhabited by A. aegypti is larger than the disease‐transmission areas, and is not restricted by temperature (or vector‐control programs); thus, it is unlikely that rising temperatures alone will bring increased vector or virus distribution. Factors likely to be important to dengue and vector distribution in the future include increased dengue activity in Asian and Pacific nations that would raise rates of virus importation by travellers, importation of vectors via international ports to regions without A. aegypti, higher rates of domestic collection and storage of water that would provide habitat in urban areas, and growing human populations in northern Australia. Past and recent successful control initiatives in Australia lend support to the idea that well resourced and functioning surveillance programs, and effective public health intervention capabilities, are essential to counter threats from dengue and other mosquito‐borne diseases. Models projecting future activity of dengue (or other vector‐borne disease) with climate change should carefully consider the local historical and contemporary data on the ecology and distribution of the vector and local virus transmission.

Natural resource managers have articulated "health" narrowly and vaguely as the condition of the biophysical environment. It is too tempting for natural resource managers to take data generated from rapid assessment techniques of biophysical condition (like species richness) as surrogates for "biodiversity." This paper takes the view that these common applications of the terms "health" and "biodiversity" obscure a meaningful search for the relationships between biodiversity, human health, and the socioeconomic well-being of human communities. Using examples of landscapes and inland waters in Australia, we argue that the biodiversity of inland waters and human health are linked in at least two ways. Biodiversity, and its endemic features, contribute to a person's attachment to a particular place and become part of a person's identity. Loss, destruction, or change in a location has the potential to affect an individual's psychological well-being, and challenge a community's identity and image of itself. Any inland waterway also

Aedes albopictus is a container-breeding Stegomyia mosquito that has dispersed widely from its origins in Southeast Asia. Because Ae. albopictus is a known dengue vector and a potential vector of a variety of arboviruses and it can tolerate cooler climates than Aedes aegypti, Australian quarantine and health authorities have strategies to detect and eliminate it from international ports. Following the detection of 42 adult Ae. albopictus in BG-Sentinel traps set on Yorke island in the Torres Strait of Australia in April 2005, extensive surveys were conducted to determine the distribution of Ae. albopictus in the Torres Strait and adjoining Cape York Peninsula. A total of 17 islands and the northern peninsula area of Cape York Peninsula were surveyed by collection of larvae and pupae from flooded containers and human bait collections of adult mosquitoes with aspirators and sweep nets. Aedes albopictus was detected on 10 islands and comprised 100% of the day-biting container-breeding mosquitoes on Yorke and Stephens Islands. No Ae. albopictus were detected in the mainland sites on Cape York. Retrospective genetic analysis of larvae collected in April 2004 and April 2005 on Yorke Island indicated that Ae. albopictus was present in low densities in 2004 and that there were 3 genetically distinct mitochondrial haplotypes on Yorke Island in April 2005. Additionally, on Yorke Island there is evidence that Ae. albopictus is displacing Aedes scutellaris.